Human
by awkwardyeti
Summary: Aella wanted nothing more than to be a real hero. Being a daughter of Apollo though, it's pretty easy to get overshadowed by the more prolific demigods at the Camp. That all changes when a demon deal goes wrong and she finds herself stuck in an alternate reality where monsters aren't just a problem for demigods, and worse, some people consider her one of the monsters.
1. Chapter 1

[[Takes place before our darling Lucy shows up in Supernatural, and before Nico appears in Percy Jackson.

And no, this is not going to be a romance story between cannons and OCs. That's just boring. D'er be action here, my friends.]]

Nothing ever seemed to happen to children of Apollo. It was a fact of life that Aella had long ago recognized. It was the big three's children and their companions who got to be heroes. She wasn't jealous. She knew how much they'd given up to save Camp Half Blood and to survive. She just wished that for once, she wasn't just another archer sitting around waiting for orders.

She knew that it made sense, in some aspect. Percy had been able to control water. Annabeth was crazy smart. Clarissa was wicked with practically any weapon. Then there was her. What good was she other than to shoot a few arrows? She felt like the Hawkeye of the camp. Once she ran out of arrows, she was useless, good for nothing except a blurting out random facts that had little to do with the current situation. Still, it could have been worse. She could have been a child of Mr. D. Then again, even they had fun powers.

It was winter now, and the camp was almost completely empty. The war against Kronos was heating up, and most of the prolific demigods were away. She hated being stuck at camp, but her mother had insisted she stay. She'd always been over protective of her, no matter how many times Aella told her she never got anywhere close to the line of fire.

Fletching arrows usually worked to calm her moods, but today, she felt on edge. It was like the calm before the storm. That was ridiculous though. The Camp was as still as ever. Aella assured herself that it was just her fraying nerves. Stupid insecurities gnawing at her. That was all it was. Even so, she couldn't help but notice that the scent of strawberries from the fields was lost to her, replaced by a foul stench she didn't recognize. It was probably a new stink bomb formula from the Hermes' kids.

Aella drew herself up, settling her quiver across her back and unstringing her bow. She wasn't going to be attacked inside the camp, so there was no point risking the limb breaking from leaving it taunt. One of these days she'd ask a child of Hephaestus to work her some "magic" into her bow. She still hadn't figured out a good enough bribe for their work though…

Heading towards the Apollo cabin, Aella noticed the stink getting stronger. Surely the Hermes kids hadn't dropped it in front of their cabin? Gods she hoped not. They'd just cleaned the place for inspections earlier that morning.

A strange, echoing murmur began to roll through her head. Aella stopped, suddenly wondering if she should have left her bow strung after all. The sensation of falling nearly drove her to her knees. Aella blinked. She was clearly still standing and not falling at all, yet she felt as though she were being disconnected from her own body. The pungent odor was overwhelming, and she found her vision was turning red. No alarms had been raised in the camp. They couldn't be under attack…so what was going on?!

"Gods…father?" she whispered, terror starting to gnaw at her.

The voices were getting louder and the red was enveloping her vision. Aella bit her lip until it bled, trying to snap herself out of it.

"Travis? Connor? This isn't funny!" she snapped, "Whatever you're doing, cut it out!"

Her sight was beginning to sharpen again; only she discovered that as the red dissipated, she was no longer in camp. She was in a room, though it was too dark to clearly make out what was around her. She blinked, trying to pull everything into focus.

"Hello?" her voice came out as a whisper.

Instinctively, she pulled her bowstring out of her pocket and uncoiled it, fitting it easily to her bow.

There were footsteps overhead. Dust fell down into her eyes and she hastily blinked it away. Deep voices, heavy boot falls- she had a feeling this wasn't somewhere she wanted to be.

"I'm a daughter of Apollo damn it," she growled quietly, drawing an arrow from her quiver and fitting it to her bow, "I will not be taken by surprise by who knows what."

"The reports all lead to this house." One of the voices said, sounding somewhat exasperated.

"Of course they do. The creepy abandoned house on the left. One of these days we'll get a job that's less cliché. Got that recording ready?"

"Yeah, but I don't think it's a demon this time. Ruby said-"

"I thought we agreed we weren't talking about her."

Aella heard a door open, followed by the sound of footsteps descending stairs. Stairs leading to her. She bit her lip again, wincing as she felt the raw flesh. Shoot first, ask questions later? Generally a good rule to follow, she'd discovered. She was a good enough shot. She'd just scare them.

Aella took up her stance, drawing back her bowstring, lightly cradling the arrow as she did. As soon as she saw a flicker of movement, she fired. She'd never liked the sound of metal hitting flesh, no matter how satisfying a hit was. It was a disgusting sound one never quite forgot. The sound was drowned out though by a loud proclamation of,

"Son of a bitch!"


	2. Chapter 2

Aella notched another arrow, taking up a rigid stance as one of the men tumbled down the stairs, landing with yet another profane proclamation. Another followed more slowly, holding up a gun. Aella didn't exactly like the odds of a gun versus her bow, no matter who her father was. The men didn't seem too keen on attacking though. The shorter of the two, the one she'd shot, was currently on the ground clutching the arrow, which sat just below his knee.

"Guess you were an adventurer, huh?" she muttered, unable to stop herself.

"Who are you?" the taller one asked, training his gun on her.

Likewise, she kept her bow aimed at his heart. Demigods weren't supposed to hurt humans, but what if it was a matter of life and death? Chiron never mentioned that scenario.

"Doesn't matter. If you ask me, it looks like you lot are the ones breaking and entering. What are you? Robbers?"

"The house is abandoned. That leaves you in the same boat as us. Now, your name."

The gun twitched in the man's hands, almost like an encouraging nod. Aella pushed her chin out, studying him a moment.

"Aella Cooper." She said, grudgingly, "Not that it would mean anything to you, would it? Now, your names and your business here."

"I'm Sam, and this is Dean. Kid, how old are you? What are you doing down here?"

"I don't care how old she is! The brat shot me!" the man on the floor complained, irritation plain in his voice.

Aella frowned, noting the apparent concern in the taller man's face and voice. That was odd for a criminal (not that she'd had much experience with them).

"I shot you because you're breaking into a house and guys have guns." Aella snapped, drawing herself up to stand a little taller.

"You couldn't even see me when you shot me!"

Aella shrugged, "Still doesn't dismiss the fact you have them. Why do you have them anyway? What is this place? Some sort of hideout?"

The two men exchanged looks, then the tall one said, "Not exactly. We're CIA agents and we got a lead about some cult activity that might be taking place here."

Aella arched a brow, "And you didn't mention that before, why-?"

"Because you shot me!"

The taller man lowered his gun and reached into his pocket, pulling out a flip wallet that revealed an ID and a badge.

"You can come read it, or I can toss it to you if you don't trust me." The one called Sam said.

Slowly, deliberately, Aella lowered her bow, letting the arrow go slack. She took a few cautious steps forward, until it became apparent that neither of them were going to make a sudden move. More confidently, she reached out, taking the badge and examining it.

"Samuel Ulrich?"

"Just Sam, ma'am."

"Since when did you start calling me 'ma'am'?" Aella looked up from the badge, "A badges doesn't mean anything. That's what my mom always says."

"Can we discuss this later? Like after I get this stick out of my leg?" Dean asked.

"It's not that bad. I didn't use that heavy of an arrowhead."

"Have you ever been shot by an arrow?" Dean snapped back, breaking off the end and standing with Sam's help.

"Yes." Was her curt reply.

Then, she smelled it- that strange, acrid smell that reminded her of the hot springs she'd visited in California with her mother on a business trip. Aella wrinkled her nose, sneezing.

"Sulfer." Sam said, as though it were a death sentence.

"Sulfer? You mean that yellow rock? I didn't know rocks had a smell."

"This one does." Dean replied, his demeanor suddenly ridged.

"Kid, get out of here now."

Aella gripped her bow, drawing strength from the smooth wood, "Why? What's going on? I smelled that stuff, the sulfur, earlier, before I ended up here. Does it cause hallucinations or something? Sort of like what mort-what people think gave visions to the Oracle of Delphi?"

Dean looked at her sharply, "What did you see?"

"Erm…nothing actually, or all of this. Not sure if I'm hallucinating now, to be frank."

"You're not sure if you're hallucinating, and you _shot_ me."

"That makes it sound worse than it actually is. But, yeah, I mean, one minute I'm off doing my own thing and the next I'm here."

Sam moved towards the wall and propped Dean up against it, before walking past Aella, gazing intently at the floor. Sticking his gun into his waistband, he then reached into his coat pocket, drawing out a large flashlight. Flicking it on, the floor was lit up with an intense brilliance in contrast to the dark basement around. Aella squinted her eyes, adjusting to the light.

As she did, she noticed there was a strange symbol on the floor, painted in what looked like dark maroon paint. The next thing she knew, both men were drawing their guns again, pointing them at her.

"Should've known you were a demon." Dean growled, "Why are you here? What deals have you made?"

"Demon? And I thought I was the mad one."

"You have to the count of five to put the bow down."

"Oh come on! This is ridiculous! You think I'm a demon? What are you, some sort of religious nut jobs?"

"Bow down, now!"

Aella bit her lip, then obeyed, setting her arrow back into her quiver and setting the bow on the ground. She didn't mention that it hardly mattered. As a child of Apollo, she was quick with a bow, and it would less than a breath for her to have it drawn once more.

"Regna terrae, cantate Deo-"

"Vescere bracis meis." Aella interrupted, arching an eyebrow at the tall one, "Oh? What? I thought we were speaking Latin now for fun."

"Dude, she didn't even twitch."

"Which means…not a demon." Sam sighed, lowering his gun.

"Mind telling me what in Tartarus is going on? You're not exactly behaving like CIA agents."

The smell of sulfer was getting stronger, and Aella noticed that the circle beneath Sam's feet was starting to glow…


End file.
